Todd Porter: Who thought Browns would win 10 games?

Monday

Dec 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 31, 2007 at 10:43 PM

When Romeo Crennel first walked through the doors of the Cleveland Browns’ facility in Berea, a hinge might as well have fallen off. The frame could have squeaked and the doorbell probably didn’t work.

Todd Porter

When Romeo Crennel first walked through the doors of the Cleveland Browns’ facility in Berea, a hinge might as well have fallen off. The frame could have squeaked and the doorbell probably didn’t work.

That was the kind of mess Crennel and General Manager Phil Savage walked into. The team, on the field, was in shambles. They feared losing to their own shadows. They believed they could beat only themselves, and seemed hell-bent on proving it week after miserable week.

Oh, those were the days.

Happy times, though, are here again. The Browns, on a nine-season journey from an abyss, are back after beating San Francisco, 20-7.

Maybe not completely back. Yes, they came up short late Sunday in a game they had no say-so in, but only because they didn’t close the deal in Cincinnati last week.

And let’s be honest -- if you were Indianapolis, which team would you rather see as a possible playoff opponent, Tennessee or Cleveland? The Browns would have made a fun, dangerous postseason team. Now they’re going to make for a hungry team in 2008.

“We had an opportunity to clinch it last week, and we didn’t. We’ve got to win those games,” said return specialist Joshua Cribbs. “That Oakland game bit us in the backside early on.

“Coach told us, we’ve got to take it as it is, and go into next season with a chip on our shoulder knowing this is our year because last year we were robbed.”

In reality, it didn’t matter what happened in Indianapolis. It didn’t matter what happened in Cincinnati last week.

Who among us thought the Browns would win 10 games? Who thought the Browns would go from underachievers to believers in a single season? Who among us saw this pulse-pounding, down-to-the-last NFL minute ending after the way things started?

What Romeo Crennel did in 2007 was work wonders.

“Those guys in there have come a long way,” Crennel said. “We’ve changed the attitude; that’s play hard and fight our hearts out and don’t quit. It paid off for us this year.

“Guys in pro football have a lot of pride. After that first game, they were not pleased with the way it went. They got together and dedicated to each other they were going to do the best they can.”

That is what breeds successful teams. When teams play for, and care for, one another rather than themselves. It isn’t as easy as it sounds in a me-first NFL, a microcosm of society.

After beating an awful San Francisco team that looked a lot like the aimless Browns teams of recent seasons, the players and Crennel had a moment together. Braylon Edwards, who along with Cribbs is headed to Hawaii, said it was intimate.

“When we started it was just us,” Edwards said. “When we finished in the regular season, it was just us. We enjoyed it.”

The players gave Crennel the game ball. Usually, it’s the coach passing out game balls after a win, but the way Cleveland dropped TD passes Sunday, they might’ve dropped those in the locker room, too.

Long that Pittsburgh opener, though, the Browns believed.

Veteran running back Jamal Lewis saw something in minicamp and training camp that led him to believe this team could win.

“That’s when I knew this coaching staff was serious about winning,” Lewis said. “It was in the things they demanded from us. If we buy into the system, we can be a good team.”

It started in the offseason with a personality makeover from Edwards. He is the most talented player on the roster, but spent too much time worrying about everything but his own job. Edwards found his professional self visiting beaches and the tropics before the season.

Offensive Coordinator Rob Chudzinski looked at the team he inherited and matched personnel to his scheme.

“Chud came in, looked at us, and said, ‘You guys can be good. Maybe you guys don’t see it, but you guys are going to be good,’” Quarterback Derek Anderson said. “We finally got out there on the field and did it. That Cincinnati game, everybody brought it.”

The Browns were against the wall. They had traded their starting quarterback 24 hours after the season opener. They could have crumbled. The could have imploded.

They didn’t. They grew together.

“That’s how we kept growing,” Anderson said.

And caring.

Changing a losing culture, and that’s what the Browns had when Crennel walked in, is like losing weight. Dieting will only do so much. In the end, to keep the weight off it requires a lifestyle change.

Cleveland isn’t saddled with the weight of losing.

“I’ve been around the game a little bit and kind of know what works and how things should be done,” Crennel said. “With young guys, you have to convince them you know what you’re talking about. It’s easy to do when you’re having success, and a lot harder when you’re not having success.

“The key for us ... was to have success on the field.”

One win turned into two. The Browns never did have a losing streak. They changed their culture by believing in each other.